Classification of Mammals

Classification of Mammals

Kingdom Phylum Class

Animalia Chordata Mammalia

There are about 5,000 species of living mammals. They are divided into three subclasses and about 26 orders (there is no consensus among biologists). Unlike other animals, mammals have body hair, have 3 middle ear bones (the malleus, incus, and stapes), and nourish their young with milk that females produce in modified sweat glands that are called mammary glands.

Major Orders of Mammals:

• Subclass Eutheria (Placental mammals)
  • Order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates: antelope, deer, camels, pigs, cows, sheep, hippos, etc.)
  • Order Carnivora (carnivores: cats, bears [like the panda, polar bear, grizzly, etc.], weasels, pinnipeds, etc.)
  • Order Cetacea (whales, dolphins)
  • Order Chiroptera (bats)
  • Order Insectivora (insect-eaters: hedgehogs, moles, shrews)
  • Order Lagomorpha (rabbits, hares, pikas)
  • Order Macroscelidea (elephant shrews)
  • Order Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates: horses, rhinos, tapirs)
  • Order Pholidota (the pangolin)
  • Order Primates (apes, monkeys, lemurs, people)
  • Order Proboscidea (elephants, mammoths, mastodonts, etc.)
  • Order Rodentia (rodents: rats, mice, squirrels, gerbils, hamsters, etc.)
  • Order Sirenia (sea cows, manatees)
  • Order Tubulidentata (aardvarks)
  • Order Edentata [also called Xenarthra] (sloths, armadillos)
  • Order Hyracoidea (hyraxes)
  • Order Condylarthra (extinct)
  • Order Creodonta (an extinct group of carnivores)
  • Order Desmostylia (an extinct group of marine mammals)
  • Order Embrithopoda (extinct rhino-like animals)
• Subclass Metatheria (marsupials, about 270 species of mammals whose young are in an immature state, most females have pouches)
  • Order Didelphimorphia - opossums
  • Order Paucituberculata - shrew-like insectivores
  • Order Microbiotheria - only one living species, called "monito del monte" (Dromiciops australis)
  • Order Dasyuromorphia - numbat, extinct Tasmanian wolf
  • Order Peramelemorphia - bandicoots and bilbies
  • Order Notoryctemorphia - marsupial moles
  • Order Diprotodontia - (10 families and 117 species) kangaroos, wallaby, wombats, koalas
• Subclass Prototheria
  • Order Monotremata (2 families of mammals that lay eggs with leathery shells and nourish the young with milk from belly pores: Family Ornithorhynchidae, duck-billed platypus and Family Tachyglossidae, spiny anteaters)
• Multituberculata (extinct mammals with multi-cusped teeth)

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